U.S.-‘Waste, fraud and abuse’ is a political fight older than the nation. Here’s what to know

By Bill Barrow ATLANTA (AP) — Good-government advocates, anti-tax conservatives, politicians of various stripes and everyday Americans grouse about “waste, fraud and abuse” across the U.S. government. President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, opened the latest chapter for a phrase hailed as common sense and derided as propaganda. “It’s a very broad idea,” said Matt Weidinger of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “But this phrase ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ obviously means different things to different people.” Here is a look at this rhetorical cudgel and how it relates to the outset of Trump’s second administration. The seemingly far-away government has always been a bogeyman Pinpointing the genesis of “waste, fraud and abuse” as political rhetoric is difficult. But the…

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